Friday, June 17, 2016

Murdered MP Led Constituency with 20% Muslim Population - One of the Highest Outside Major Cities

Some are still trying to cast doubt on the claim that Jo Cox's assassin has political motivations. For example, there's an ongoing back and forth over whether he shouted "Britain First!" (I think the weight of evidence is that he did).Unfortunately, for the partisans of the non-political position, reports are now coming out that Thomas Mair had received books and literature from right-wing groups in South Africa and the United States. And we are now hearing that police have found "Nazi regalia" in his home.But beyond all that, it just seems too coincidental that the first murder of a British MP in twenty-five years would be against one of the most pro-Muslim politicians in the country in a constituency - Batley and Spen - that is small-town ground-zero in the debate over immigration and not have it be political.I'm not alleging that Britain First or any other anti-immigration or anti-Islam group had anything to do with it.I suspect the murder is what it seems to be - a lonely mentally-ill man, living in a community undergoing steady "Islamification" was increasingly attracted to anti-immigrant views and finally decided to act on them through a deed of horrific violence.Muslims comprised 18.77% of the vote in the most recent elections in Batley and Spen. And the largest town, Batley - with a population of 50,000, making up roughly have of the constituency - is now one-third to one-half Muslim. There are eleven mosques in this West Yorkshire town, and a total of sixteen in the constituency.

Eid Salah at the Batley Cricket Club

Outside of some major cities and towns - London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and a few others - Batley and Spen has one of the largest proportion of Muslims in the country.Jo Cox literally owed her victory to the Muslim vote, which is among the most monolithic blocks of any segment - reliably voting 75% Labour. And this despite the fact that her Conservative opponent was himself a Muslim.In the manner of most members of Parliament, she served the values and interests of her constituency faithfully. For example, she was a vocal proponent of boycotting companies that do business with Israel.

The Labour Friends of Palestine (Jo Cox in center) from a tribute to her on Electronic Intifada

It was not always this way. Though Batley has had a significant South Asian population going back to the 1950's, up until the end of the 20th century it was a typical Yorkshire community, among other things being overwhelmingly white. Indeed, Monty Python featured an ongoing skit - the exploits of the Batley Ladies Townswomen's Guild - making fun of the very British but slightly dim small-town residents.Jo Cox was an important player in the struggle over bringing Sharia to Britain, though she obviously wouldn't have put it that way.There is no reason to believe that she wasn't anything but well-intentioned.And of course she didn't deserve to die.But she was not a random victim of a mentally-ill man. She was murdered for her actions and her beliefs.